Objective: To evaluate the effect of urological complications seen in the first year after the primary kidney transplant on long term outcomes.

Patients and Methods: ESRD patients who underwent primary kidney transplantation between January 2000 and June 2012 were reviewed. The data of adult patients with urological complications occurred in the first year after primary kidney transplant were extracted. Long term graft survival between recipients with urological complications and without any urological complications was compared.

Results: Of 2274 patients, 211 (9.3%) had urological complications in the first year after the primary kidney transplant. Male gender, DGF and donor age were found to be risk factors for increased urological complications after kidney transplant (p<0.05). Graft survival was significantly short in recipients with urological complications (p<0.05) (Figure-1).Ureteral stricture, symptomatic vesicoureteral reflux to transplant ureter, lymphocele, and dilatation of ureter or pelvis without stricture were independent risk factors for graft lost in long term (p<0.05) (Table-1).

Table-1 Urological complications and their frequencies. P values show significance of relationship between complications and graft survival.

Figure-1 Post transplant graft survival of patients with and without urological complications.

Conclusion: Urinary tract complications related to kidney transplantation are strongly correlated with long term graft survival. Our results also show that ureteral complications have a major role in graft survival. We believe that a significant portion these early urologic complications can be avoided by meticulous surgery.

CITATION INFORMATION: Arpali E, Kaufman D, Sollinger H. Kidney Transplantation: Do Early Urinary Tract Complications Influence Long-Term Graft Survival? Am J Transplant. 2016;16 (suppl 3).

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